… via proven tools for financial and social success: improved communications, thinking, and skill-sets..
The Power of Being Articulate: The Thoughtful leader’s Model for Wealth and Happiness
Demonstrable value: “I recommend this book to anyone who desires success …it is my good fortune to have read it. Don Bracken, Director of Quality, Commercial Tool Group, Inc.
Professional support: “The one basic skill needed in industry is the ability to organize and express ideas in writing and speaking.” Peter Drucker, prolific writer of best-selling business books, Clark Professor of Social Science at Claremont Graduate School in California, and international management consultant. 1909—2005.
“Your professional, financial, and personal success depends to a great extent on your ability to articulate.” From the book
Excerpt: The job of all communications in business is to persuade. My colleagues, particularly at Carnegie Mellon University, and many of the engineers who attend my seminars, argue that to inform is an equally important objective of communications.
Baloney. The purpose of every one of the three million words that I have written for business is to persuade customers to buy a product or service, to persuade …
Summary: Throughout recorded history, many thinkers have noted the importance of being articulate and the power of words. This book, however, goes a giant step further by connecting articulation to wealth and happiness, and to the clear thinking and better decisions that thwart mediocrity. It quite correctly points out that we think in words, and we need more words to think with as the issues we need to resolve become more complex, as they do as we rise in any organization and as our close relationships mature.
The Power of Writing Well: The Thoughtful Leader’s Model for Business and Technical Communications
Demonstrable value: “Pete Geissler’s sensible, pragmatic advice has greatly influenced my success and that of my staff and firm.” Gary Van Balen, Engineering Manager, Sci-Tek Consultants
Professional support: “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector.” Ernest Hemingway
“Editing yourself is your toughest job made easier if you follow one rule: delete everything that does not contribute to the story line, everything that does not further your purposes (s) or those of your receivers.” From the book.
Excerpt: Writing is far more than words on paper or in your computer; it is a permanent reflection of your thinking, your intelligence, your logic, and your abilities to explain complex ideas to yourself and to others. As such, it determines your future in commerce probably more than any other skill. Think of your writing this way: muddy thinking yields muddy writing, and vice versa: Muddy writing displays muddy thinking. You don’t need that.
Writing better than your peers puts you in the lead for promotion or for success as an entrepreneur … It also makes you a better speaker, your more public display of your intelligence.
Summary: This short book condenses the habits and techniques—your tools—that work most of the time for most of the people who write at work and want to be happier in all parts of their lives: nothing more, nothing less. It is also a true and accurate reflection of my forty years of writing for business and of teaching writing at two prestigious universities and many professional societies and companies. You can trust that what I’m telling you will improve your abilities to communicate and think, and make you more productive, promotable, and happy. It will also make your organization more efficient and profitable.
I guarantee it, and my students attest to it.
Leadership for Profitable Sustainability: The Executive’s How-to Guide to Ethics, Dignity, Articulation, Communications, and Relationships
Demonstrable value:: Leadership for Profitable Sustainability will change the ways leaders, managers and others perceive and improve their communications to be more clear and efficient, and their behaviors to be more empathetic and irreproachable. It will maximize financial and psychic rewards for individuals and firms.
Professional support: “(Leadership) is a sense of mastery–the ability to articulate… a level of human sensitivity, compassion, and diplomacy.” Martin Kaplan, VP, Walt Disney Productions
This book answers why and how can being more articulate leads to wealth and happiness …better writing and speaking lead to higher productivity and profitability … ethical behavior leads to sustainability and peace of mind … treating people with dignity leads to strategic competitive advantage …and why and how has the human side of business become the winning side.
Excerpt: Knowledge is power. This simple and short aphorism is so universally accepted that it’s embedded in our everyday thinking and speech.
But it’s only half right. In fact, it’s a dangerous half-truth and surely an exaggeration.
Here’s why: knowledge without the ability to express it is a toothless, useless, sleeping tiger; knowledge by itself is powerless. The same is true for creativity, innovation, inventiveness, dignity, ethics, and other desirable and valued characteristics of Man.
Summary: This book logically combines five books. Each of the five books has been critically applauded for its practical advice and immediate usefulness: …relevant, an excellent and timely message…a valuable self-improvement tool … a must-read book for all business starters, managers, and owners …elevates ethics to its rightful place at the forefront of our thoughts and actions…
The Little Black Book of Human Resources Management
Demonstrable value: “Barry does a wonderful job summarizing the aspects of Human Resources that they don’t teach you in school. A great resource …” .Susan K. Powers, Human Resources Director, Drug and Laboratory Disposal, Inc.
Professional support: “A great society is a society in which men of business think greatly of their functions.” Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), English philosopher and mathematician.
“I’ve been an HR leader for over 20 years and I still find there is a lot to love about this line of work.” Barry Wolfe,
Excerpt: Tell somebody you work in human resources, and the response is typically an expression of sympathy. ‘Whoa, man, ‘people will say with a half smile and a gentle, stinks-to-be-you headshake. You’ve got to have the worst job in the company!
How wrong they are. I’ve been an HR leader for over 20 years, and I still find there is a lot to love about this line of work. For starters, the variety of responsibilities is surprisingly wide …
Summary: So then, what is this book about? It’s about the stuff you learn when you’ve worked for a boss you’d swear jumped out of a Dilbert cartoon … worked in a business whose performance careened up and down like a runaway clown car … when you’ve faced legal or ethical problems that needed the wisdom of Solomon to sort out while they roiled your guts at night …when you’ve sat on the stand across from some third-rate Perry Mason … Some people call this their bag of tricks, or wisdom. I’ve always thought of it as my Little Black Book.
Sprinting from Good to Great
Demonstrable value: At age 84, Pete is in his sixth decade of living large by prospering small. He is happily playing–he says he has never worked a day in his life–as a freelance writer for businesses; a teacher/professor to leaders, engineers and scientists; and an author/publisher of books. They are his one-person conglomerate built around words.
Enjoy, profit, and live large by prospering small.
Bill O’Rourke, Fellow in Ethics, Brigham Young University; Director, John Carroll University; former President, Alcoa Russia; and co-author of The Power of Ethics and The Business Ethics Field Guide.
Professional support: “Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few see it as a sturdy horse pulling a wagon.” Winston Churchill.
“I am a big fan of free enterprise, aka self-reliance, laissez faire economics, and that dirty word capitalism. I am a fan first because it has been good to me in my journey to live large by prospering small, and I hope that it will be as good to you.” From the book
Excerpt: I wrote this book to share my lessons learned–my secrets–as I, an ordinary person with ordinary talents and smarts, journeyed to an extraordinary life of comfortable wealth and extreme happiness, to a life of living large by prospering small. I am your template; any sentient, curious, and ambitious person can emulate my journey at any time. Summary: Secrets is a tour de force that combines self-help, how-to, autobiography, and short stories to dig into such topics as entrepreneurship vs. employment, money management vs. money DIY, marketing and the soft sell, vacations and health, the payback for decency, and the virtues of Generous Free Enterprise vs. traditional free enterprise. The author bashes conventional wisdom and introduces new, more dynamic and effective ways to think and act: competitive supremacy™, not competitive advantage; customer collaboration™, not customer satisfaction; Intelliniche™, not branding; and the Big 4 Behaviors, not, SOS, and more.